Villa Park Door Shut On Filing Challenges

February 03, 1987|By Neil H. Mehler.

Villa Park refused to accept two challenges to candidates` petitions for village trustee Monday afternoon because the village clerk wasn`t in the office. Monday was the last day challenges could be filed.

Michael Iozzo, an independent candidate for the Villa Park Village Board, tried to challenge the three-person trustee slate of the dominant Village Garden Party, alleging insufficient nominating-petition signatures and other problems.

But Village Clerk M. Carol Reedy wasn`t at work and hadn`t deputized anyone to act in her behalf Monday afternoon. Nor could Acting Village Manager Wayne Lulay reach Reedy by phone, Lulay said.

Iozzo, a local business owner running for one of three vacancies in the April 7 election, said the Village Garden Party candidates submitted 263 signatures but only 200 were ``legitimate`` because some were from

nonresidents and others from persons not registered to vote.

The law requires at least 218 signatures of registered voters, or 5 percent, based on the 4,364 turnout in the April, 1985, election.

Iozzo said that Reedy, a member of the Village Garden Party and an elected official, told him in the morning that she was only a part-time clerk with an outside job and couldn`t be in the Village Hall the entire day.

The challenge is to the slate comprising incumbents Dennis Keating and Emil ``Bud`` Vittorio, who are running as a team with Larry Dean (Mieszcak).

Keating tried to file objections to the petitions of Iozzo and Joanne Gross, also an independent running for trustee, but Lulay wouldn`t accept them either because of the absence of the clerk.

Also running as an independent is incumbent Thomas King.

Iozzo said 63 signatures were invalid on the Village Garden Party petitions for a variety of reasons. He also said the party had failed to file a form required by the Illinois Election Code and statements of economic interest, and the petitions showed no evidence of a notary seal.

Keating and Dean said they were certain that their party`s nominating petitions contained sufficient signatures to be valid and that they had filed the required economic interest statements.

On Monday afternoon Iozzo said he didn`t know what to do next but said he would consider filing a suit against the village.

The challenge, if filed with the clerk, would have been heard by the suburb`s Municipal Electoral Officers Board, comprising the clerk, Village President Douglas Brandow, and Trustee Paul Hyde, with Village Atty. Aldo Botti as adviser.